470 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June 17, 1905. 
Tmm mmmm 
Recollections of Cottonwood Creek. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I am on the U. S. Transport Thomas, saiUng on the 
Pacific, between San Francisco and Manila. I left my 
former station of Fort Riley, Kansas, on March 17, 
and have enjoyed a very pleasant trip thus far. We 
stopped two days at Honolulu, and found that a most 
delightful spot to visit. In addition to grand moun- 
tain scenery and beautiful ocean views, with the white 
surf fringing the bright waters, there are most attrac- 
tive _ picturesque homes almost hidden by luxuriant 
tropical foliage, all of which can easily be seen by street 
car, while the climate is so pleasant as to render car 
riding in the fine, open cars of that city, a great pleas- 
ure. _ Sight-seeing in Honolulu is not all mere idle 
pastirne; it has two institutions that invite both the 
scientist and the student, as well as the pleasure seeker 
— one is the Aquarium, the other the Bishop Museum. 
The former is, like' all others, always interesting and 
instructive to members of the Forest and Stream 
family. I have seen flying fish frequently, as I have 
sailed on tropical waters, and I had hoped to study one 
now at close view in this aquarium. In this I was dis- 
appointed, as none were then on exhibition; but the 
wings, or fiying fins, of one were shown me. The many 
fish that were present, however, were such as pertain 
to the South Pacific, I suppose, and were a wonder to 
behold in their strange forms and vivid colorings. 
Their names were given in the native language, so they 
didn't mean much to strangers, and I will not burden 
you. with an .attempt at their description. 
The Bishop Museum is a collection of South Sea 
Island relics and curiosities, classified and arranged to 
the best advantage, and preserved and displayed in a 
most beautiful building. I do not suppose such another 
collection exists in the world, and the city of Honolulu 
is to be congratulated on its possession. It is exhibited 
without charge, and should not be omitted by any one 
visiting the city. 
Upon leaving San Francisco we were escorted 
through the Golden Gate by a large fiock of whitish- 
colored gulls, which finally dropped off, till there re- 
mained only about twenty or thirty brownish-colored 
birds, called by the sailors boobies. These continued 
with us till we reached Honolulu, a distance of 2,100 
miles. They were usually soaring about in the wake 
of our vessel, occasionally sitting upon the water like 
a duck, apparently to rest, and subsisting, doubtless, 
upon refuse from the ship. Since leaving Honolulu 
we have seen none of them, so I infer they must have 
attached themselves to some vessel going back to San 
Francisco. At present we have only one or two birds 
journeying with us, white and black ones, that keep at 
quite a distance away from the ship, and are not very 
sociable — possibly they may receive reinforcements 
eventually. 
In inaking my preparations for a sojourn of two or 
three years in the Philippine Islands, I did not omit the 
item of sport. I recalled the interesting article of 
"Ahmi Commissario," about his duck hunt with my 
old friend Kirk, and I asked others about the possibili- 
ties of sport in that remote corner of the globe. All 
gave so encouraging an account of it that I, ever mind- 
ful of Mr. Cristadoro's advice, purchased a new ham- 
merless for my boy Will, aged fifteen, and laid in a 
supply of ammunition, such as will load a thousand or 
more rounds; and if we reach those islands and really 
find any good shooting I will give my friends of the 
Forest and Stream a more or less brief account of it. 
Sailing along these calm Pacafic waters from day to 
day, with scarcely anything but the dinner gong to 
break the monotony, tends to make one reminiscent, 
and as my thoughts have to-day wandered back some 
twelve or fifteen years to the days my old shooting com- 
panion K. and I used to spend on Cottonwood Creek, 
I am moved to jot down some of them as best I can 
from memory alone, in the hope they may interest 
others. Cottonwood Creek rises in the low hills due 
north of Fort Meade, S. D., and flows in a northerly 
direction, through almost level plain country, for about 
ten miles, when it empties into the Belle Fourche River, 
a branch of the Cheyenne. It has little apparent cur- 
rent, and to the unobservant would not be regarded as 
a stream at all,, but merely a succession of pools. These 
go almost dry in the hot season, but fill again when- 
ever rains occur, and when quite full are connected one 
with another, by running water. Like almost all other 
water-courses in the plains, it is, in places, fringed with 
small cottonwoods, but up toward the hills, where it has 
its rise, there stands — or, at least did stand at the time 
of which I write — one immense broad, spreading tree 
of this variety, while numerous stumps near by show 
that it was formerly not the isolated landmark it is at 
present, but had been one of a grove of mighty cotton- 
woods which, doubtless, gave the crpek its name. Ihe 
geological basin drained by this creek is some five or 
six miles wide; and had at that time but one habitation 
in the entire tract — apparently a single quarter-section 
had been taken up and was under fence — outside of 
this, the country was entirely unfenced and in a state 
of nature, with the exception of a dam built across the 
creek, nearly down to the river, for the purpose, I sup- 
pose, of retaining some of the running water in the 
wet season for irrigation purposes; but no one lived 
therp pr had apparently ever madg vi,se of the water so 
retained. The whole valley was thus practically given 
over to the coyote, the prairie dog, and such wild fowl 
as were attracted to the pools during their passage to 
and from their breeding places in the north. K. and I 
first noticed this creek along in the summer of 1891 
or '92, as nearly as I can recollect. We were ever on 
the search for sport with rod and gun, and we made 
many trips to the Belle Fourche for the purpose of fish- 
ing. The Belle, as we called it, flowed in quite a curve, 
and could be reached from Fort Meade in several direc- 
tions, and at distances varying from twenty to twenty- 
five or thirty miles. We used sometimes to go in one 
direction, sometimes in another. I had a fine driving 
pair of horses, that would take us to the river, allow us 
to fish there several hours while they fed and rested, 
and take us home again the same day with ease; so it 
was no great undertaking for. us to go to the Belle. 
We usually got some fish, though I do not now recall 
any large strings. They were channel cat, skip jack, 
a kind of herring, and a variety called by the dwellers 
along the river, pike, though it was not the true pike, 
but a smaller variety, probably a pike-perch. It was 
cn one of these fishing excursions that we first noticed 
Cottonwood Creek. 
As I have said, the creek would not have been even 
noticed by the unobservant; but our eyes were always 
looking for possibilities for future sport, and we could 
not help remarking the attractive pools, then almost 
dry, but capable of filling with fall rains, should any 
arrive; and- we determined to be on hand in such an 
event and see what these pools might contain. Along 
in early September, or perhaps in the latter part of 
August, the rain came. I do not now remember pre- 
cisely in which month it was; the storms that come in 
either are cold and remind one that summer is over, 
even though it is only August. We had some delay 
about getting started on the first morning, when the 
rain had let up sufficiently to warrant our setting forth 
for the creek; so we did not get off until about 11 
o'clock. We hadn't been gone long before the rain, 
which had held up long enough to lure us out on the 
road, began to fall again with some vigor; and in the 
end we were thoroughly drenched; but we nevertheless 
kept on. As I have stated, these storms are cold at 
that time of the year, and we were so numb and stiff 
with cold and wet as to be hardly capable of using our 
fingers by the time we arrived at the creek. When we 
came in sight of the first pool we saw. two widgeon 
swimming about on it, but as they had seen us before 
we did them, they sailed away before we could ap- 
proach them. We were satisfied, however, with the 
prospect — the pools were full and the ducks had come. 
We now dismounted from the wagon, filled our 
pockets with shells, drew our guns out of their wet 
cases, and set about approaching pool after pool in a 
sportsmanlike manner. We were rarely disappointed 
regarding the ducks, and on some pools they were quite 
numerous. As a rule they were not wary, and would 
allow us to approach quite near before taking flight. 
This would permit us to give them a right and left as 
they Avere leaving the water without compelling us to 
creep and crawl through the wet grass and bushes, and 
then finally shoot at them at a distance, and on the 
water, in violation of the ethics of some of our corre- 
spondents. It is strange how a little sport seems to 
hasten the circulation of one's blood; though we felt 
nearly frozen upon dismounting from the wagon, a few 
minutes of successful sport soon had our entire bodies 
in a delightful glow, and we paid no further attention 
to either cold or wet. Not so, however, our driver; he 
had followed us as best he could with the wagon, keep- 
ing sufficiently near to permit us to empty our game 
pockets from time to time as they became heavy, till 
he had become almost chilled through, so that we 
finally had to stop shooting, help him out, unharness 
and feed the team, build him a fire and cover him with 
our coats and slickers before we could get him com- 
fortable. In all future trips that he made with us, which 
were many and some of them quite cold and uncomfort- 
able, he always made an exception in favor of this day's 
trip, when we thought we were the most uncomfortable 
we had ever been. After getting our team fed and our 
driver warm and comfortable again, we remembered 
our lunch, and that suddenly reminded us how hungry 
we were, though while engaged in the pursuit we hadn't 
even thought of such a thing, and probably would not 
had we kept it up till dark. 
After lunch, we found it was between 3 and 4 o'clock, 
and but little time remained to us to shoot, unless we 
wanted to drive home in the dark; but we concluded to 
try it again for an hour or so. We soon found the 
ducks as plenty as ever; in fact, they had not left the 
creek at any time; when disturbed at one pool they 
had merely flown to another at no great distance away, 
and we could come upon them again with a reasonable 
amount of effort. We kept it up for a while and then 
got into the wagon and started for home, arriving at 
the post about half-past six, wet, cold and tired, but 
happy. It was always our practice, when we returned 
successful from a shooting trip, to drive up in front of ■ 
the line of officers' quarters, and unload our wagon of 
its contents. This usually collected about us such of 
our acquaintances as chanced to be at hand, and we 
got due credit for our performances from our brother 
sportsmen. When we had been unsuccessful, however — 
and we sometimes carne home empty-handed, in spite 
of our best el?orts — we would drive up the back way, 
quietly unload our guns, shell boxes, etc., and slip 
into the house without any ostentation. On the even- 
ing in question, we came proudly up the front drive- 
way, and didn't hesitate to make some unnecessary 
clatter in_ unloading. It was all wasted, however; it 
was so rainy and so near dark that no one was on hand 
to witness our triumphant return. I do not now recall 
the size of that day's bag; possibly I should hesitate to 
print it even if I knew it. All this happened years ago. 
The country_ was then unsettled, and such an idea as a 
future scarcity of game and a necessity for limiting 
the bag never annoyed us. I should do differently now. 
Once the pools had filled up they didn't go dry again 
that fall, and ducks came and went until cold weather. 
We never found them so plenty again as they were on 
that first rainy day; but no one else appeared to shoot 
there, and we nearly always found some. After our 
first visit we usually had to cover more ground and 
approach the pools with greater care, and, alas, some- 
times shoot ducks on the water; but we generally made 
a fair bag, and spent many happy days on that lonely 
and distant water course. After we had visited, on 
one hot afternoon in the Indian summer, all the cus- 
tomary pools with scarce any return in game, we con- 
cluded to seek new ones further down the stream than 
we had ever been before, and on this occasion dis- 
covered the dam above mentioned. The stream, as I 
continue to call it, although no water was then flowing 
and a sharp eye for physical features was needed to 
detect the true water course from the numerous false 
ones, appeared to furnish no more good pools below the 
one we had reached on that particular day, and we had 
never before been beyond that point on it. The after- 
noon was hot; we had worked long and carefully with 
little to show for our efforts; and, in addition, the air 
on that occasion had been filled with little insects, gnats 
or something of the kind, that had irritated and annoyed 
us most persistently. 
Although a few hours yet remained to us before time 
to start for home, I for once had had enough, and 
suggested to K. that we give it up and go home. He 
was always loath to leave the field, and seemed insen- 
sible to personal discomfort on this occasion, as on 
many previous occasions. He now suggested that we 
explore the creek to its mouth, which could not be 
above three miles from where we then were, adding 
as an inducement that we might find some new pool 
by this means and get a good bag of ducks after all. 
As I saw he wanted to explore the country, I accord- 
ingly agreed to continue the pursuit, but the creek held 
out so little promise below that point of holding any 
water at all, that I good-naturedly remarked that I 
would promise to carry all the ducks we would find that 
afternoon. We had already left our wagon some dis- 
tance behind, and did not expect to see it again till we 
returned to it, as the horses were then unharnessed and 
grazing on the lariat, and the driver was reposing in the 
shade. K. laughed and said he would remember my 
promise. Wc set forth and worked as hard as we could; 
we approached every possible location for a pool upon 
our hands and knees until we could look into it, and 
then almost invariably found it dry. The soil in this 
vicinity seemed more of a gravelly than a clayey 
nature, and permitted the water to soak into it. After 
we had followed this for about an hour and had suf- 
fered the heat and the insects till forbearance had al- 
most ceased to be a virtue, we suddenly, in peering 
through the bushes, saw water ahead in a considerable 
area. We carefully withdrew and maneuvered so as to 
approach this water from the most advantageous point, 
and thus for the first time discovered the reservoir 
caused by the above-mentioned dam. The water col- 
lected by the dam had set back in various arms, or 
irregularly shaped bodies, more or less fringed with 
thickets, so but a small portion could be seen at once; 
but that small portion contained ducks in considerable 
numbers. We forgot the heat and the insects' in an 
instant, and at once set about securing our quarry. 
We worked the various branches and inlets for an hour 
or more with pretty good results, and when we finally 
gave it up, K. reminded me of my promise to carry 
the game to the wagon. We were then some three 
miles or such a matter away, and as I thought of the 
long, hot tramp we mustjnake, I almost regretted hav- 
ing been so successful. K. helped load me with all the 
game, and taking both' guns himself, set out ahead, 
telling me to take it easy, and he would get the wagon 
and come back after m.e. In course of time he returned 
and said the country was too rough and too much in- 
tersected with coulees to be practicable for the wagon, 
Avithout wasting more time seeking a route than 
would be required to walk back to it. He then 
took his share of the burden, and together we finally 
reached the team, again tired but happy. We drove 
up the front way on our entrance into the post that 
night. 
Among the incidents that occurred that season on the 
Cottonwood was one that, while it really amounted to 
little in itself, yet it lingered long in K.'s mind, and 
he has alluded to it many times since. We were at the 
dam. He was across one. of the arms of the reservoir 
and at some distance from me, when three teal flew over 
my head in such a direction that, while they gave me a 
straightaway shot, yet to K. it would have been a 
cross shot had they been within range. As I drew up 
my gun to shoot, the ducks, though at distances 
from me ranging by quite a number of yarcjs as seen 
